


Night Visions

by ypsese



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Criminal Reader, Curse of Ankhseram, Curses, Death Wish, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Fairy Tale Curses, Fluff and Angst, Gentle Kissing, Immortality, Love/Hate, Mental Health Issues, Surprise Kissing, Teasing, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-16 00:26:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17539205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ypsese/pseuds/ypsese
Summary: She was always there, fluttering around in the edges of his vision like an insect. But the fact that she was still there was enough to make him fall in love.





	Night Visions

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Australia Day

The Alvarez Empire was known for its tropical, humid weather, clear skies and plethora of plants. It wasn’t known, however, for annoying girls in torn clothing and no shoes dancing across the edge of Lord Spriggan’s balcony.

Zeref stood from his usual perch, overseeing all that happened in the country he’d been building for centuries. The cordial addressing of the humans, his little pawns and playthings going about their tedious everyday rituals.

He stood dutifully, the soft winds of the afternoon brushing his dark hair across his cheeks like paintbrush strokes. Tapping his fingers against the granite fixtures with an abundance of calm washing over his every aspect, so much so that it became unnerving.

An annoying hum broke his line of concentration and his lips thinned in agitation. Trying to meditate with this girl was impossible, she lacked all and every trait that was necessary for a calm, stable environment.

Zeref glanced across, his dark eyes locking with the girl's annoying figure. The wind was soft against her skin, showing the gentle caressing shine of the sun. (Y/N)’s hair was tied back into a tight braid, but every now and then small strands would loosen and tickle her face. Sun-kissed but silent from words, her lips were in straight line from a vow of muteness.

(Y/N) sat on that rock every day, humming under her breath to control the writhing serpent-like chaos that thrashed from the deep recesses of her mind. She lived every day with the curse of death hanging around her like a turbulent storm, numbing her sense of mortality completely.

Soft pink cherry blossom balanced across the shrine and Zeref observed his companion's eyelids as they twitched under the presence of his gaze.

“You’re staring,” she murmured softly, one hand coming to her forehead to brush away the small bangs tickling her nose.

“You’re humming again,” was his monotonous reply, not even acknowledging his strange tendency to observe her.

At the sound of his accusation, her eyes snapped open clearly agitated by his complaint. Zeref’s hair was at the peak of its usual shagginess, his dark eyes complacent and calm, and despite the angry burning in his gaze, she loved him all the same, just as he loved her.

A naturally platonic relationship on Zeref’s part because he understood that they were both negatives. Time bombs waiting to explode, catastrophic events clashing together with heat and passion. Two wrongs didn’t make a right and they certainly didn’t cancel each other out.

Zeref was more than okay with being her friend, he had been alive long enough to endure and understand every type of pain possible in this wretched world. The place in his swollen, evil heart that (Y/N) resided in was all that was left of his morality.

But she was too busy with trying not to destroy everything she touched to care about such childish romances. Any advance Zeref made went straight over her head, and the ones that managed to penetrate her defences were deflected by his responsibilities as the King of Alvarez.

Maybe in another life when she wasn't cursed with the segregation and loneliness of her atonement, perhaps they could have had a life together, a family, a home. That was his only way of keeping the last slither of his sanity otherwise.

(Y/N), however, couldn’t deny that whenever Zeref left the empire, her mood would significantly sour. Despite all the negative implications that their weird relationship had, she knew that a day without Zeref stretched as far and as long as her warped sense of reality.

He had been away from their little shrine, or temple, whatever you want to call it, for so long that she had succumbed to numbness. Seasons had passed in a blur of heat and cold, people spoke and all she heard was noise.

So now that he was back, sitting a mere metre away from her, was ruffling her feathers. Zeref’s presence was unnerving, (Y/N) had gotten used to him being away and the sudden change made her bitter.

“Sorry,” she muttered. “I’ll try to control it.”

“That would be much appreciated.” Zeref said under his breath, turning back around to continue his reflection.

Silence once again filled the two immortals as the day continued. The square was filled with lively chatter as the daily market attracted the usual amount of attention.

The sound of children laughing and the lively music playing was enough to distract (Y/N) otherwise full contemplative state. Her eyes grated open nervously and she looked towards Zeref, afraid he would catch her not having obeisance.

A gusting wind picked up and (Y/N) watched the bamboo chimes sway and the bird feeders whistle, stirring the pond of water into endless ripples. The heavenly scent of Zeref’s blossoming garden started to burn and waft under the afternoon sun. Strawberries were baking from the fields and frangipanis limply fell from the trees.

(Y/N) glanced back at Zeref when she realised she had let her mind wander off completely. Luckily, he hadn’t sensed her shift and was still sitting in complete silence, his eyes closed and his expression unreadable.

(Y/N) slowly got up from her perch, balancing effortlessly on the chiselled rock, her dirty bare feet unfazed by the sharpness of the granite. Her robes flew freely in the breeze now, swaying back and forth playfully at her knees.

The girl jumped from the rock and onto the balcony edge, peaking over to observe the townspeople, knowing full well that a simple breeze could knock her over and she would be sent tumbling into the town square and splatter.

But she would never die. A burden she knew all too well.

“You never were one to pay attention,” the dark wizard suddenly spoke up, his eyelids opening lazily, a small smile playing on his lips.

(Y/N) turned to stare at her companion, the bangs on her forehead ruffling. Zeref did not look at all mad, in fact, he seemed happy to see that his friend had disobeyed his orders of reconciliation and peace.

“You do have a good memory,” (Y/N) recalled, doing a giddy spin across the marbled edge, her calloused feet the only thing keeping her from falling.

“When it comes to you,” Zeref said in his usual idiomatic tone. “I pay close attention.”

(Y/N) couldn’t stop herself from blushing at his statement. Turning her head towards the sun, trying to mask her flushed face and breathless expression in the sunlight.

A moment passed between them before she turned back, her skin turning back to normal. Zeref wasn’t watching her, his concentration turned towards the rich forest surrounding them both, and the blooming flowers.

“Really?” she asked with a suspicious tone, eyes narrowed towards him. Zeref simply shook his head, bemused by his companion's expression.

“I remember every single detail,” Zeref confirmed with a soft smile. “To when we first met.”

“Well that’s cheating,” (Y/N) professed, crossing her arms. “Even I can remember when we first met, Spriggan~.”

Zeref turned away from her gaze, flustered by her animated teasing. His usual tranquil demeanour replaced with what resembled a wounded puppy.

“When the Fairy met the Dark Wizard,” he mused in a hushed, placid tone.

(Y/N) smiled shyly, looking down from the balcony edge at the dark wizard, the wind playing with the smalls locks of her hair once again.

“More like; Fairy Tail wizard saves idiot from even bigger idiots.”

At the mention of her old guild, Zeref watched (Y/N)’s hand come up to absentmindedly scratch her bicep, where her black Fairy Tail insignia was still present.

“You miss them,” Zeref said, his voice untroubled.

“I missed you more,” the immortal spat back, huffing.

Zeref’s dark eyes widened the tiniest bit and his shoulders relaxed, finally putting the pieces together. That was why (Y/N) had been acting so skittish and sensitive.

“I missed you too,” the dark wizard said smoothly.

(Y/N) knew she was blushing again, but this time she was too distracted by her racing heartbeat and the merging horizon to care. Whenever Zeref said anything remotely sweet, it sent the immortal into a broken state.

A frown suddenly curled at her lip as a reminder to cut off the nice flittering feeling in her stomach. Zeref wants Fairy Heart because he wants Mavis, don’t you dare get your hopes up.

Sensing her mood dampening, Zeref shuffled in his robes, unwinding himself from his meditation pose and getting to his feet.

“I know fighting your old guild troubles you,” Zeref lamented. “But we need Fairy Heart to destroy Acnologia.”

“I’m well aware of your plan,” (Y/N) grumbled. “I just don’t see why we have to start a war.”

Zeref sighed, they’d had this conversation so many times he’d lost count. (Y/N) had such opposite views to their plan as he did, she thought that if they just told the guild that they need Fairy Heart to destroy Acnologia, they might believe them.

But Zeref understood the loyalty Fairy Tail held, so much so that (Y/N)’s different approach to Fairy Heart inadvertently showed her feverish devotion to the guild she no longer belonged to.

But that was almost a decade ago, when (Y/N) first became a victim of the curse of Ankhseram. That was why she could stand so close to Zeref and not wilt like a flower. She had chosen who could live or die in a perilous situation and suffered enormous consequences.

~

_(Y/N) had been on her way back to Magnolia from a quest when a scuffle broke out at a train stop. At first, the spacial mage had thought nothing of it, the train stop was at Broken Hill, a known area for gangs and fights. Besides, fights broke out all the time in the Guildhall, this was nothing new._

_That was until the screaming started, and the screeching of train brakes being pulled into overdrive. (Y/N) was up from her seat in a second and stumbling out of the carriage._

_Broken Hill was the scummiest of scum when it came to Fiore. And that was saying something, considering low-life dark guilds like Eisenwald, Dark Unicorn and Naked Mummy._

_The streets were littered with trash, and the homes surrounding the area could barely stand, walls decaying, ceilings caving in and doors barely hanging onto their hinges._

_For the most part, the inhabitable parts of Broken Hill were overrun with green icy and thick, thorny vines. The entire town was being swallowed by the forest day in day out, which was why their small economy was crumbling. It was a surprise they still had a train station._

_“Stay back!” a voice called out, loud but trembling with fear._

_A ruckus was breaking out on the outskirts of town, just out of reach of the train station. (Y/N) could see three big, burly men and what seemed to be a single dude on the other side of their attacks._

_“You’re gonna pay for what you did,” one managed to get out with a surprising amount of correct grammar. (Y/N) wasn’t one to be bias or stereotype but_ usually _people that lived in Broken Hill weren’t that bright._

_The three men were huge, at least two times the size of the dark-haired dude in the weird robes. One of them was bald, the other two had managed to keep some sort of hair._

_“Please,” the man begged, even from this far away (Y/N) could see his knees trembling. “Stay away, don’t get close.”_

_“You think I’m going to let you get away with hurting my guy?” The guy in the middle was like an evil version of Elfman, his shoulders were so broad (Y/N) couldn’t see over the top of him._

_Nevertheless, (Y/N) never backed down from a fight, especially when it was set on unfair terms like this. The spacial wizard was storming up like a raging bull, steam rolling out her ears as a bright, white light engulfing her being._

_It might’ve been cowardly, but (Y/N) went straight in for the back of the head and socked one of the side guys right in the ear. Her fist was stinging like awfully afterwards._

_It was worth it._

_Not only did the poor dude look stupid, but he didn’t even get time to react or scream in pain, he just tensed up and crumbled to his knees like a sack of potatoes._

_A second later the white glow from (Y/N)’s body settled and she was left in her re-quip armour. The small number of people that had gathered at the scene of the fight gasped, eyes bugging out in surprise._

_“S-She’s that Fairy Tail Wizard!” someone called out, recognising the purple figure of her Twilight Armour._

_“The Knight,” Zeref said quietly, soaking up the girl's random appearance and magic abilities. “Twilight Armour_ was forged _from the first ever Dark Guild over 400 years ago.”_

 _“You know you’re stuff,” (Y/N) commented, twisting her wrist carefully, weighing her sword up. “Although, in_ hindsight _this kinda seems like overkill,_ but _it was the last re-quip I used from my mission.”_

_“That’s the sword of Arachne,” Zeref’s dark, serene eyes widened the slightest bit. “It has such high welding properties that it’s supposedly unbreakable…”_

_“Are you some sort of history nerd?” (Y/N) asked, peaking over the bald dudes enormous, bulging bicep._

_Zeref didn’t respond, he merely stared, eyes flickering between the men he had almost_ killed, _and the girl who had decided to interfere. Zeref had never in his miserable, immortal life been so surprised. Despite his endless encounters with strong mages and quirky personalities, he was left somewhat speechless to the fact that she was not only_ alive, _but defending him._

_“W-What the?” the big dude in the middle muttered as he turned to his side, disgusted that his wingman had made like a dolphin and dived for the concrete._

_“Don’t worry,” (Y/N) said carefully as she manoeuvred herself in front of the dark mage, the sight of her clad hips swinging sent the surroundings males in the area headless. “I’ll take care of these goons.”_

_“Take care of us when you’re dressed like a dumb superhero?” The big guy laughed, cracking his knuckles._

_“A dumb superhero,” (Y/N) deadpanned, her sword scratching at the pebbles by her feet like a bored pet. “You look like an uglier version of Bane.”_

_“Huh?” the dude’s eyebrows furrowed. “Who the hell is that?”_

_“Forget it,” (Y/N) sighed. “I should’ve known pop-culture references would’ve gone over your head.”_

_“Nothing goes over my head! My reflexes are too fast.”_

_(Y/N) took a moment to settle the raging frustration bubbling in her stomach before she turned towards Zeref, who was watching the conversation unfold, confused._

_“How did you not take these guys,” she grunted. “They're morons.”_

_“She just called us morons, Kerobokan!” The bald dude, Kerobokan turned to his wingman that wasn’t unconscious and glared._

_“No one calls me stupid!”_

_“Well they probably should,” (Y/N) muttered, readying herself for their attacks. But as per usual, (Y/N) had misread the situation, fired-up the wrong target and become woefully unprepared for what was actually about to happen._

_A body, way off to the side that had been what (Y/N) had assumed to be unconscious, was now standing up and chanting what looked like a dark magic spell._

_(Y/N) went to intercept the mage, but the spell whizzed right past her ear. All too late she realised who the real target was, despite her scary armour and smack talk._

_The dark pulse hit Zeref like a bowling ball and he was sent spinning like a retired ballerina, blood trickling down his chin as if he’d sneezed too hard._

_(Y/N) gaped hard, utterly confused by the attacks she had just witnessed, but for the first time in her_ life _she decided that this was not a good time to dwell on her inaction._

_Kerobokan came at Zeref, barreling towards him in a pussy like fashion, wailing a war crime as it seemed. Even though (Y/N) sucked at evaluating situations, she sure as hell had quick reflexes._

_She turned, planting her foot right in his path, swinging the entire weight of her body sideways, thrusting her hand straight into his balls. The poor guy froze up on the spot and immediately started to cry, fumbling on his feet._

_Kerobokan’s last wingman leapt forward, dark energy swarming around his hands. (Y/N) turned, cutting through his spell-like silk, her sword crashing into the man’s forearm and slicing through his skin like butter._

_“Where’s your honour in attacking a defenceless man,” (Y/N) grumbled, pushing the man back with the edge of her blade._

_Zeref swallowed uneasily and got to his feet, his robes dirty and his palms bleeding. His dark eyes honed in on beads of blood smearing across his hands, fascinated and unfazed by the bacteria spreading across the wounds._

_“You just punched Gary in the gonads!” he exclaimed, cradling his bleeding arm as he scrambled back into the wall of an abandoned shack._

_“And you attacked an innocent man,” I shot back, sheathing my sword in a tiny pocket dimension in space._

_Zeref felt his throat dry up and he stared, utterly bewildered. He’d never seen someone so inadvertently naive and yet, she had the power and ferocity and a thousand men. A walking contradiction as it seemed, which was oddly ironic._

_The dark mage was more than intrigued._

_“He ain’t innocent!” Kerobokan yelled, gritting his mismatched teeth. “He’s The Black Wizard!”_

_(Y/N) paused for a moment, scratching the back of her head. “The what?”_

_“He’s the immortal Zeref!” the other guy wailed._

_Zeref swallowed, realising all too quickly that his minute piece of luck had run dry; like sand sifting through his fingers. As soon as (Y/N) recognised who he was, she would turn against him without hesitance, and he’d be left in the exact same situation he had been in_ to _begin with._

_Observing their distraction, Zeref took his chances, carefully turning around and delving into the forest. He was quietly unnoticed, something he had bitterly gotten used to after centuries of atonement. The only thing plaguing his thoughts was the guilt of unexpressed gratitude. A girl who did not know him for who he truly was had stood up to defend him, and that was indeed the best gift he had received in a long time._

_(Y/N) cracked her neck. “Am I supposed to know who that is?”_

_Kerobokan stared at the Fairy Tale wizard. “Do you live under a rock?”_

_(Y/N) blinked, thinking about the shambled mess that was her Guildhall. It was full of dirty, drunken wizards, drinking away their monetary sorrows. The hall itself was lacklustre, grimy and every surface was covered in sugar ants. So maybe she did live under a rock._

_(Y/N) turned back towards her robed friend to find that he had disappeared. The only evidence of his existence was the small splatter of blood in the dust._

_“Hey…” a frown curled at (Y/N)’s lip. "Where’d he go?”_

~

“You ran away,” (Y/N) huffed.

“You got cursed,” Zeref muttered back, the guilt he held on his shoulders for her condition was enormously unmeasurable. Zeref remembered the way she had smiled, how innocent and pure she had once been, but now she was walking the same steps Zeref had surmounted.

“Stop doing that,” (Y/N) whined, swatting at the dark wizards black hair. The dark mage flushed pink, thrashing his hands at her own, trying to stop her incessant bugging.

“What exactly am I doing?” he grumbled, his lips twitching in annoyance.

“The blaming,” she confessed, leaning in to flick Zeref’s nose. “It’s…you look sad and I don’t like it.”

“How am I not to blame?” was his cool response, as if being miserable was his day job.

“Because I chose to save you!”

“Save?” Zeref rolled his eyes. “I killed you.”

“No you didn’t!” (Y/N) fists started to curl in anger. “You’d think being alive for so long wouldn’t make you so dense!”

The insult went straight over the dark-haired mages head and he shrugged his shoulders almost limply, undeterred by the conversations movement.

“I don’t understand what you’re trying to prove, (Y/N).” Zeref murmured complacently.

“I’m saying that it wasn’t your fault, you brainless goose!” (Y/N) was practically ripping her hair out she was so frustrated. “I’m saying that I made a decision and I don’t regret it!”

As soon as the words left (Y/N)’s lips, it felt as though someone had cast Fairy Sphere across the greenhouse. The planet started to turn so slowly that every muscle tick in Zeref’s face didn’t go by unnoticed.

The dark wizard stared, his overcast eyes brimming with crackling turbulence. Something started to tick away inside Zeref’s brain, hundreds of thoughts spinning around in his mind like a quiet thunderstorm.

The breath escaped (Y/N) in a huge breeze and she was left startlingly restless, fidgeting under the intensity of his gaze.

“You…” (Y/N) had never known Zeref to splutter for words, and yet she was standing in front of him, watching the mage’s eyes flicker into a downcast expression.

The Fairy Tail wizard twiddled with her fingernails.

“How can you not regret what you did…y-you…” Zeref eyes widened and his hands were suddenly wrapping around (Y/N)’s shoulders and he was shaking her. "That's inconceivable."

“Because I met you, Dillweed!” (Y/N)’s voice cracked. “Because I fell in love with you!"

The world started moving again, incredibly fast, as though (Y/N) was frozen in a snowstorm. Something deep inside her aching heart chipped off and fell, disintegrating into nothingness.

It had slipped out. (Y/N) hadn't meant to say anything. It had been an accident, and the unacceptable amount of trepidation that filled her bones was enough to draw tears. The way he was looking at her now, eyes filled with astonishment and shock, maybe even disgust. Broke her.

It had been a simple slip of the tongue. How could anything so world-breaking be simple? (Y/N) had planned the moment out when she would tell Zeref how she felt a million times in her head.

Sometimes it was half-way through meditation, or when they watered the flowers in the greenhouse, or before he went off one of his roaming expeditions. Even in (Y/N)'s most risky imaginations, she had expressed her feelings at the war council, in front of the entire Spriggan 12.

But this was nothing like she imagined, and she felt sick straight to her core, like rotten fruit.

“Emperor Spriggan!” Ajeel suddenly appeared at the doorway of the greenhouse, Brandish standing beside him, looking very bored. “Sorry for interrupting you and Lady (Y/N), but the negotiations have started to deteriorate.”

(Y/N)’s back straightened like she’d be struck by lightning, stepping away from the dark mage, all too aware of their intimate proximity. Zeref glanced at her again, his cheeks were hot and his lips were trembling ever so slightly. But (Y/N) knew for a fact her own blush was worse and the prickling sensation on her skin was all too familiar and incredibly uncomfortable.

Shame, the unbearable shame of being in love with someone who was incapable of feeling, or being in love. The shame of abandoning her guild without a word in favour of what her heart desired. The shame of becoming the very thing she despised.

“I…” Zeref trailed off, turning to look at his blushing companion. Zeref could feel his evil heart swell in his chest, the dangling company of his severed heartstrings chiming in symphony.

“We will continue this conversation when I get back.” The Emperor of Alvarez stated placidly, his arms coming to thumb his beaded necklace.

“For now…” the dark wizard turned to his Re-Quip mage and pressed a gentle kiss to her cheek. Zeref’s lips were soft and innocent, much like his eyes and (Y/N) felt her heart fracture in her chest.

But as soon as the warmth touched the skin, it melted away, and she watched Zeref blush so red he could've camouflaged into the dragonfruit cacti.

Maybe (Y/N)’s warped sense of reality had finally reached its limit. Zeref couldn’t have just kissed her cheek, and let her heart and soul rest in her chest, even if it was only for a moment.

Two shaky fingers came to trail the tingly feeling Zeref had left on her cheek, her expression filled with awe. The spacial mage watched in utter silence as Zeref followed his elite soldiers out of the greenhouse, not looking back once.

Her entire was burning with heat and her heart was struggling to keep up.

“What just happened?”


End file.
